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A review by sidharthvardhan
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
4.0
Edward Said has observed how oriental this book is. A lot of people here seem to have similar objections to the book or how it doesn't represent India. I don't think this book tries to represent India or any book can do so. Forster even says somewhere in the book that no single person can represent India, so I think he would know no single book can do so either.
As for orientalism. I don't think a book (or a piece of art) can be considered bad just because it imagines an oriental country - otherwise, Salman Rushdi's Midnight Children could be considered oriental too. If such novels create prejudices (which was Said's main objection) then the fault lies with the readers who want to learn about a country from a work of fiction. As for Forster, if he is guilty of generalizing, he is guilty of generalizing both Indians and Britishers. Otherwise, he has built some complex characters and not the caricatures that result from the pen of those writing with prejudices.
Forster's interest is the challenges faced by the two communities in holding a conversation. Colonialism was one problem, and prejudices were another. Fielding was one character who went further than others in making a connection with an Indian and that was only because he was individualistic. Forster represents the whole Anglo-Indian society as forming a sort of single invisible institution representing to Indians their foreign rulers. Most Britishers who stayed in India accepted these dictates, but Fielding didn't accept his rules and that's why his and Aziz's friendship is at the core of the book (and not the lawsuit that most summaries seem to suggest). Aziz could make the Indian half of that friendship just because he too was unprejudiced at least in the beginning of the book. They knew that they won't meet again when Fielding gets marries (and thus loses his individuality) and Aziz develops a hatred of British in general (and thus loses his unprejudiced nature.
One thing I do agree with critics on is that Forster wrote way more than he had to. He seems obsessed with the Indian climate. It was as if he decided to make the novel his kitchen sink and threw in all eloquent descriptions of climate he didn't get the chance to use.
As for orientalism. I don't think a book (or a piece of art) can be considered bad just because it imagines an oriental country - otherwise, Salman Rushdi's Midnight Children could be considered oriental too. If such novels create prejudices (which was Said's main objection) then the fault lies with the readers who want to learn about a country from a work of fiction. As for Forster, if he is guilty of generalizing, he is guilty of generalizing both Indians and Britishers. Otherwise, he has built some complex characters and not the caricatures that result from the pen of those writing with prejudices.
Forster's interest is the challenges faced by the two communities in holding a conversation. Colonialism was one problem, and prejudices were another. Fielding was one character who went further than others in making a connection with an Indian and that was only because he was individualistic. Forster represents the whole Anglo-Indian society as forming a sort of single invisible institution representing to Indians their foreign rulers. Most Britishers who stayed in India accepted these dictates, but Fielding didn't accept his rules and that's why his and Aziz's friendship is at the core of the book (and not the lawsuit that most summaries seem to suggest). Aziz could make the Indian half of that friendship just because he too was unprejudiced at least in the beginning of the book. They knew that they won't meet again when Fielding gets marries (and thus loses his individuality) and Aziz develops a hatred of British in general (and thus loses his unprejudiced nature.
One thing I do agree with critics on is that Forster wrote way more than he had to. He seems obsessed with the Indian climate. It was as if he decided to make the novel his kitchen sink and threw in all eloquent descriptions of climate he didn't get the chance to use.